Nimitta – Melt Joy (2015)

It’s an interesting postulation, right? What would happen if you melted joy? Would it be an excessive dysmorphic slurry of pleasure goo? Like melting a Yorkie or an amusement park?

In some ways, I guess that is what free jazz two-piece Nimitta‘s album is. ‘Kingfisher’ opens with furiously rattling drums that slowly align with guitar melodies, whilst the saxophone introduces Naked City-style madness. Tracks like ‘Shelter From Flies’ carry the bewildering excess of Hella and Lightning Bolt. I guess the only thing that could be lost, if Nimitta’s contribution to indeed typify melting joy, is the brilliant use of space and atmosphere in tracks like ‘Adorning War’ and ‘Half Shrew’, the sort of motif that bands like Alheucatistas and more recently Pneu have excelled in providing. One would have to insert some sort of sub-metaphor that describe tiny space-filled vesicles amidst the gooey goodness. But I am, clearly, not the laureate to go down this road.

At its core Melt Joy is a series of wild and nutty guitar-drum improvisations. But that’s always been the fun of free jazz, right? For anyone looking for a wider explanation of Melt Joy‘s core themes, I would surmise that the gesticulation in the front cover says most of it.